Picture Post: What It Feels Like To Finish Writing a 700 Page Novel

I did it!!!! I just typed the last word of the Epic World War II Saga I have been toiling on for about a year now!!! It's 700 pages! 230,000 words! Oh my God, I can't believe it! 

This is the most insane, amazing feeling! I want to quote Titanic. 

Screw it, I'm GOING to quote Titanic! 

I'm the King of the Woooooooooooooorld!

Okay, Heather, time for some long giddy breaths in and out. Whew. Wow. That was intense. *looks at calender* Dang, I wrote that last 50,000 words in two and a half weeks! If this was YA, that'd be like a first draft a book! 

Sheesh, this historical fiction stuff is crazy! I'm not sure I ever want to do that again. It's so many pages!

...

Wait a second...

That's really a LOT of pages...

Quite a lot of pages, actually.

That I now have to edit and do rewrites on.

Umm... why did I think this whole epic war saga 

historical fiction thing was a good idea again? 

Oh right. The art. The emotion. The characters. Blood and chaos and kingdoms rising and falling within the span of just a couple of years and a love story and my two main characters just trying to survive and it's all so deep and meaningful. And all that.

Yeah. I think I'm going to go take a nap now.

New Tattoos!

So I realized, crazy of crazy, I hadn't yet posted on my blog pics of my lovely new ink!!! I got my advance check recently, and my first stop was the tattoo parlour, natch ;)  I finished up my half-sleeve (that turned mid-way through into a 3/4th sleeve), gorgeous roses and lilies down my arm and up onto my shoulder and back. And, with no further ado, voila! [uh, yeah, these angles are a little awkward, so lemme explain: 1) inner arm 2) back-ish view 3) front and inner arm again]

 

Yes, I am in love with my new lilies :)

New Tattoo!

So here's the final reveal (although I still have another session) of the tattoo I've been working on all Spring!!

It's also a sneak peak at the session from my author photo shoot session! More to come, all taken by the lovely Meagan McLendon!

New Tattoo!

My tattooist is this tiny little gal, but damn that girl can DIG. Into my flesh, that is. With several sharp needles repeatedly for my first three hour session. That's right. I've got two more three-hour sessions left 0_o

Oh dear, I don't want to scare people any more than they already are about tattoos! I've loved them forever. Even since I was young and extremely religious, I've thought they were so beautiful. Art. On your skin! Yes!! But it wasn't until I was twenty-five that I got my first one, and I love, love, love them. That said, I didn't always make the best decisions about designs. I've learned more with each one, how to work with a tattoo artist, trust them to do their craft and add part of their personal style, give up a little of control over the process, and the result is always tremendously more beautiful.

So for this tattoo, I'm really trying to get some beautiful coverage on my left arm. I imagine both arms will be full sleeves one day, but right now I'm stopping at half sleeves in case I have to get a grown-up job one day ;) It's a cover-up for an old badly done tattoo I'd gotten on a spontaneous impulse one day (you can still see the old tattoo through it, like on the purple flower, we'll get more coverage next time so it disappears). Note to all: spontaneous impulse tattoos are usually a bad idea (even though they can be exciting and fun!).

All the flowers will be colored in during the next session - mixes of purples and blues, it's going to be SO GORGEOUS!!!!! If you can't tell my goofy smile in the above picture, in spite of the pain (which is very short-lived, in another half a week it'll be all healed up and not tender to touch), tattoos make Heather a happy girl :)

And here's me with both arms in tattoo'd glory, outside during the fabulous spring weekend:

Pretty in Pink: Why I Love Punky Hair Colors

I'm getting a tattoo today, a big half-sleeve on my left arm. I also have bright pink-and-blue hair, which I've had some variation of for a few years now. It's very normal to me, I barely notice it when I look in the mirror, which is why when I get reactions to it, I'm like, oh yeah, this isn't 'normal.' I've had many people make assumptions: that I'm immature, rebellious, want to be identified with goths, do drugs, live lasciviously. Or friends have told me they were intimidated by me when they first met me! In actuality, I wake up, go work studiously on my grad school work or creative writing, pick up my kindergartner from school, have dinner with my little family, stay in almost every night, and go to bed by midnight. While I'm far from conservative politically, I live very conservatively. I barely drink. I'm happily married (and have been for 9 years). I do laundry on the weekends.

Why I first elected to have pink hair is probably fodder for another long blog post [I have a chronic illness and was bedbound for about six months after my son was born, and I needed a little brightness in my life], but the basic reason I continue is: why not? So many people color their hair, why not brighter, more vibrantly fun, alive colors?!? There's too much brown in the world, too much gray. What pink hair means to me is: wake the hell up! live today alive and aware! don't go through life half-consciously, punching in time at a job and then mindlessly going about routine. Too bad negative associations along go with the hair and tattoos, but here I am, working to bust stereotypes one day at a time :)

And yeah, tattoos? It's gorgeous artwork that I get to wear around all the time. I look at it and it makes me smile. A little bit of pain for a lifetime of payoff is absolutely worth it to me. Besides, like giving birth, you forget the pain afterwards, until of course the next time you go under the needle and are like CRAAAAAAAP, why did I sign up for this again ;)

Also, coming soon: a step by step blog post on how I make my hair so pink and pretty without going to a salon, and on a budget.